New Treatment Options for Struggling Veterans

This past April, President Donald Trump made history when he announced that the United States would accelerate the approval process for certain safe psychedelic treatments like ibogaine and psilocybin for several disorders including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Parkinson’s, and depression.

Joined by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., podcaster Joe Rogan, and other advocates, President Trump acknowledged that the rate of suicides – 22 a day for our veteran population – is too large to ignore, and that embracing their use for certain treatments rather than continuing to criminalize psychedelics, may be a new beneficial path forward.

While many were surprised by the President’s announcement, the groundwork had been laid in a previous National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), in which the Trump Administration added ibogaine, psilocybin, and other psychedelics to a list of medicines that states could begin administering in controlled environments to voluntary participants. This will allow treatment research in this field, that was banned in the 1960’s, to restart. In a recent NDAA request, the Pentagon and Department of War asked for $10 million in funding to study psychedelics.

Now instead of traveling to Mexico where these medicines are legal, people in the U.S. would have access to treatments here at home that have been used historically in other countries across the globe.

Researchers at Stanford University recently conducted a study with 30 combat veterans, all suffering from PTSD or TBI, and all desperate for an alternative treatment to the VA-prescribed pills they were taking.

These veterans were flown to an Ibogaine treatment facility in Mexico where brain scans were conducted before and after treatment. After a single Ibogaine treatment in Mexico, roughly 80% of the soldiers lost their PTSD diagnosis, based on the scans. That number increased to 95% after a second treatment. (The story of these veterans was chronicled in the award-winning Netflix documentary “In Waves and War.”)

During the 2026 legislative session, I introduced a bill that would have created a pilot program in Idaho for research into treating PTSD and TBI for our veterans and first responders.

House Bill 899, named the “Medical Advanced Healing Act,” quickly picked up co-sponsors in the House and Senate, but was introduced too late in the process to secure a full hearing.

My bill did not request any taxpayer money for the program, although it would certainly be justified given the dramatic need to help our veterans. My simple goal is to make these treatment options fully available.

Currently, ibogaine, psilocybin and MDMA are considered Schedule I drugs, making them illegal. To be on Schedule I, a drug must be considered addictive and have no medical benefit. In the case of ibogaine, the opposite is true. Ibogaine is not a party drug, but rather it makes you quite miserable during treatment. No one wants to use ibogaine more than one or two times, and the known medical benefits are now being proven by researchers.

There are no known currently accepted treatments for PTSD or TBI that have shown to be anywhere near as effective as ibogaine and similar medicines.

With the Trump administration showing proactive leadership on this important veteran issue, it is my hope that Idaho will follow suit and allow access to these life-saving medicines by the end of the 2027 legislative session. Our veterans and first responders deserve nothing less.

By Representative Rob Beiswenger, Idaho Freedom Caucus